1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a novel apparatus for storing and dispensing sheet material, and more particularly, to an apparatus for feeding sheet material from a cassette which holds a plurality of material sheets.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine or a printer, forms an image onto sheet material consisting of, for example, individual sheets of paper.
A cassette is used for supplying individual paper sheets to the image forming apparatus. Prior art cassettes are known that comprise a body which is open at the top for supplying the paper. Such cassettes include a paper-receiving plate which is spaced by a spring from the base surface of the body. The spring urges the paper-receiving plate, and therefore the paper, upwardly so that each individual sheet can be easily removed from the cassette. The cassette includes a paper retaining lip located on the edge of the top surface of the cassette in order to prevent the uppermost sheet from being forced out of the cassette by the action of the spring.
According to this prior art structure, the cassette in cooperation with a paper pick up roller, supplies each individual sheet sequentially to the image forming apparatus.
Since the prior art design requires a cassette with additional elements, there is less space available for storing paper sheets. As previously discussed, the prior art cassette consists of an open box with the paper-receiving plate spaced by a spring from the fixed bottom surface. The use of a paper receiving plate and spring necessarily limits the space available for the paper supply. Furthermore, since additional elements are needed for each cassette to store and dispense paper, the prior art cassettes are more costly to manufacture. Also, an operator must replenish the paper stored in the cassette more frequently, especially in the case of a high-speed, image forming apparatus.